The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee last month issued a damning 73-page report, by the Committee's Majority Staff, exposing the widespread and corrupting use of "sue and settle" practices by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Obama Administration, to form and promote its policies. It's not pleasant reading, and citizens who favor transparency, accountability, and equal access and oppose secrecy, autocracy, and favoritism in government agencies need to be … [Read more...]
Climate Change Industry Doesn’t Live on Chicken Feed
For all those climate alarmists who are up in arms about what they consider the billions of dollars supposedly supporting CAGW skeptics, here's a bit of reality therapy: The money supporting alarmism amounts to about $1.5 TRILLION a year, according to an expensive 200 page report on the climate change consulting market that came out in April, summarized by Don Jergler in his July 30 Insurance Journal article "Is Climate Change Now Its Own Industry?" Jergler reports, "The $1.5 trillion global … [Read more...]
It’s Official: July 2015 Is, and Isn’t, the Hottest Month on Record!
NOAA breathlessly reports, "July 2015 was warmest month ever recorded for the globe." CNN, USA Toady---oops, that's USA Today---, BBC, and lots of other mainstream media lapdogs all obediently reported it. But laymen need to pause for a deep breath before panicking. First, "ever recorded" means back to 1880 (conveniently leaving out the Holocene Climate Optimum, Minoan Warm Period, Roman Warm Period, and Medieval Warm Period, all of which exceeded modern temperatures), and "recorded" means by … [Read more...]
Is Pope Francis Contributing to Human Trafficking?
Speaking to a gathering of mayors from around the world at the Vatican July 21, Pope Francis urged action to reduce global warming, saying he particularly hopes the UN climate summit later this year will address how it "affects the trafficking of people." Problem #1: Human-induced climate change has not affected the trafficking of people, or even migration in general. The one and only candidate for climate-change refugee status, a man from the island of Kiribati, just lost his case on appeal, … [Read more...]
Ethanol: A Federally Mandated Killer
Terry Scanlon of the Capital Research Center leads his latest email this way: When you gas your car with 10% ethanol, you're dragged into the Renewable Fuel Standard morass run by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). This environmentalist policy is so terrible, even the greens have turned against it. But as a government program, it's immortal. Our latest "Green Watch" documents how this disaster funnels money from consumers to crony capitalists, reduces your car's mileage, raises food … [Read more...]
Dirty Dishes Coming Your Way
First they came after your toilets. Then they came after your light bulbs. Now they’re after your dishwasher. Federal regulators never rest, do they? It’s not enough that they mandated that toilets use so little water per flush that it often takes two, three, or more flushes to get rid of—well, you know. It’s not enough that they mandated compact fluorescent light bulbs that give so little light that it’s difficult, especially for older folks (like me!), to read by it. Now the U.S. … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Vindicates Cornwall Alliance on Mercury Emissions
Monday, July 1, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the law by imposing regulations on mercury emissions from power plants without first doing thorough benefit/cost estimates. Nearly four years ago the Cornwall Alliance published a study by environmental regulatory economics Dr. Timothy Terrell, The Cost of Good Intentions: The Ethics and Economics of the War on Conventional Energy, that made that very point. Dr. Terrell comments on the … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Gets One Right: Strikes Down EPA’s Mercury Regulation
On Tuesday, June 30, the US Supreme Court issued its decision on Michigan v. EPA, regarding the EPA’s regulation of mercury emissions from power plants. Burning coal and oil releases mercury into the atmosphere, which scientists have said can eventually be absorbed into fish and thereby wind up in humans who eat the fish. Excess mercury can cause neurological damage, though there is some doubt about how much of that can be attributed to U.S. power plants. In Michigan v. EPA, the EPA claimed … [Read more...]
Bandow: Papal encyclical forgets the ecological benefits of market economies
Christian economist Doug Bandow, a long-time friend, has published three thoughtful responses to Laudato Si, Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment. One is "In Calling on Government, Laudato Si Underestimates Power of the the Market." It is, as usual, clear and concise. This excerpt is particularly important: ... the Pontiff’s own goals conflict. For instance, he speaks movingly of the dignity of work and its importance for all, including the poor. These jobs—especially better ones, of … [Read more...]
Hayward Slam Dunks Sachs
Economist Jeffrey Sachs directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He's also led the way in the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals--a high-sounding program to end poverty that depends largely on redistributing wealth from the West to the Rest with an obligatory but ineffectual nod toward the need for governmental reform and economic development in impoverished countries handicapped by corrupt leadership, progress-stifling political structures, and social mores that undermine personal … [Read more...]
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